Santa Fe
by Dippy Conlon
Summary: Jack has always wanted to go to Santa Fe. This is a strange wish for a boy living in New York. What could have inspired it? One shot.


Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies or their characters.  
  
Santa Fe  
  
"Goodnight, Francis," the young boy's mother said, leaning down to kiss him goodnight. Her long, dark blond hair was tied up in a bun, and she was dirty and sweaty from her job at the factory, but Francis still thought she was beautiful.  
  
"Goodnight, Mother," he said, smiling and settling into his bed.  
  
She left the room, closing the door softly as she passed through it. All she had left to do that evening was clean the entire apartment, and keep dinner warm for her husband, whom she would wait up for.  
  
She wiped the sweat from her forehead, willing herself to begin. It had been a particularly hard day at the factory. One woman had been fired for staying home too often. The foreman had instructed her to take over that woman's duties. She now had five machines to watch, as opposed to the three she used to have.  
  
However, the housework had to be done. Normally, she would have asked her husband to do some, but he had just been fired and was upset. This was the reason she allowed him to stay out late. It was hard being fired when you were poor with a family to support. They both knew that Francis would have to begin to work soon, instead of being watched by a neighbor in their apartment building while they were both out. It was a day his parents dreaded to see. The factories were no place for a young boy, especially one who was only seven, not that it prevented millions of them working there. If only they had more money.  
  
She began to clear the table in their small kitchen of the two dinner plates, leaving her husband's there. She was scrubbing them in the sink when the door opened. She spun around to greet her husband. As she neared, she could smell that he had been drinking.  
  
"Hello, dear," she smiled. "How was job searching?"  
  
"Nothing," he shook his head. Then he got a silly grin on his face. "But at the bar there was this man. He had been hunting, and he acted the whole thing out for us. He shot this huge deer. Let me show you."  
  
"No, dear, I don't need to see," she tried to prevent him from taking his gun off of the wall. But he just shook her off.  
  
"Shh, it's fine. Look, he was crawling through the forest, searching for a deer, he spotted one," her husband was acting the whole thing out. She watched, shaking her head with a smile, hoping he would not fire the gun and break something. "Then, he took careful aim, and shot."  
  
BANG. The gun went off. A room away, Francis started awake. His father merely stared at the scene before him. His wife was lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood, bleeding from a wound in her chest. Suddenly, he realized what he had done. He rushed over, placing her head carefully in his lap.  
  
"Dear, dear, wake up, wake up," he mumbled, rocking back and forth. He began to sob uncontrollably. "What did I do? What did I do?"  
  
He remained like this for a few minutes, then he suddenly heard something. Francis stood in the doorway, sleepy-eyed and curious.  
  
"Dad, what happened?" he asked, wiping his eye.  
  
"Nothing, what are you doing up?" he snapped, angry at being interrupted. He only wanted to morn the death of his wife in peace, why did this boy have to bother him?  
  
"I heard a big sound. It woke me up," Francis replied sleepily. That is when he noticed his mother. "What is mother doing?"  
  
"She's gone," his father stated, a bit to himself.  
  
Suddenly, the sounds of the police were heard. They grew closer and closer. One of the neighbors must have heard the gunshot and called them. His father cursed under his breath.  
  
"Where did she go?" Francis questioned, very confused. He could see his mother right there in front of him, but his father said she was gone. It was hard to comprehend. He knew what he saw, but he believed his father to know everything. What his father said was law, and Francis believed it.  
  
"Santa Fe, boy," his father snapped sarcastically.  
  
The End 


End file.
